TECHNOLOGY: A Colorado company that uses excess natural gas to power cryptocurrency servers hopes to have 35 operations deployed throughout the Rocky Mountain region as soon as June. (Casper Star-Tribune)

TRANSPORTATION: A California legal expert says today’s expected final rule to roll back Obama-era automobile fuel efficiency standards is the Trump administration’s biggest step yet to block climate action. (New York Times)

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WIND: Experts say equipping California’s wind farms to provide grid services and paying operators for doing so could help resurrect the state’s dormant wind market. (Greentech Media)

CALIFORNIA:
• PG&E says its $4 million in fines and penalties will not be paid out of the $13.5 billion trust set up for fire victims during its bankruptcy. (Chico Enterprise-Record)
• A federal judge rules PG&E can’t be sued for power lost as a result of the utility executing public safety power shutoffs through a process approved by state regulators. (Courthouse News Service)

FOSSIL FUELS: Wyoming leaders say the state’s Integrated Test Center could be a potential world leader in clean coal and carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration technologies. (Wyoming Business Report)

COAL: A University of Wyoming economist says Powder River Basin coal producers will struggle to make it through the rest of the year due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Gillette News Record)

OIL & GAS:
• Leaders of New Mexico’s oil and gas industry are hoping for federal support amid reduced operations due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Carlsbad Current-Argus)
• Colorado’s oil industry set new production records last year with 192.2 million barrels of crude despite battles over state regulations and slower well permitting. (Denver Business Journal, subscription)
• Chevron is donating $230,000 to nonprofits in the Permian Basin responding to the coronavirus crisis. (Hobbs News-Sun)

HYDROPOWER: Ice jams from the Colorado River have shut down the Shoshone Hydropower Plant in Colorado’s Glenwood Canyon. (Grand Junction Daily Sentinel) 

UTILITIES: Hawaiian Electric wants to build a 40 megawatt/160 megawatt hour battery storage system that will lead to the closure of the oil-fired Kahului Power Plant. (Maui News)

SOLAR:
• A proposed project to install solar arrays at school sites could save a California school district an estimated  $4.6 million in utility costs over 30 years. (Antelope Valley Press)
• A California startup has developed transparent solar cells to create a “solar glass”  that can turn sunlight into energy. (CNN)

COMMENTARY:
• A renewable energy advocate says Longmont, Colorado must continue to be committed to 100% renewable energy to fight climate change. (Longmont Times Call)
• A University of California professor says Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers must include hydrogen power as part of California’s clean transportation future. (CalMatters)
• A California journalist says questions must be answered about PG&E’s spending on transmission line maintenance and state regulatory oversight of the utility. (CalMatters)

Lisa Ellwood

Lisa is a Lenape and Nanticoke Native American freelance journalist, editor and writer currently based in the U.K. She has more than two decades’ experience working in corporate communications and print and digital media. She compiles the Western Energy News daily email digest. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Temple University; her specializations include data journalism and visualization. She is a member of the Native American Journalists Association, Investigative Reporters & Editors, Society of Professional Journalists, and the National Union of Journalists (U.K.).